


Footprints On The Heart

by bananasandroses (achuislemochroi)



Series: Whofic [43]
Category: Doctor Who (2005)
Genre: 4X13 (Journey's End), Alternate Universe - Canon Divergence, Angst, F/M, Fluff, Tenth Doctor Era
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2010-01-01
Updated: 2010-01-01
Packaged: 2018-04-04 03:46:03
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 663
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/4124508
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/achuislemochroi/pseuds/bananasandroses
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>“Some people come into our lives and quickly go.  Some stay for awhile and leave footprints on our hearts.  And we are never, ever the same.”</p>
            </blockquote>





	Footprints On The Heart

“You have to admit, Doctor, it _was_ pretty funny.”

It might have been at the time, he concedes to himself silently, but any humour his situation had held is rapidly disappearing with every mention Rose makes. She can’t seem to let it rest – and he? He isn’t much in the mood for talking about it, either, but he doesn’t know how to get that across to her without making her feel guilty about bringing up the subject. So he’s keeping schtum. He knows enough of guilt to want to keep himself from lumbering Rose with any.

Still, none of this introspective thinking is helping to solve anything. He watches Rose smirking up at him from her position on the ground and grunts out a non-committal reply, deliberately refusing to see how it makes that smirk falter slightly, before taking pity on her and smirking at her himself. He drops to the ground beside her, needing to be closer to her vitality, and is immediately comforted by feeling her snuggle closer to him. She brushes a kiss across his cheek, something no sooner felt than past and gone, and on feeling it he feasts his eyes on her and smiles gently. His reward is a beam of a smile from her that holds none of the guile of the previous smirk.

And after a few seconds more he finds himself starting to relax against her calm warmness. His arms move, almost without his volition, so that he can tuck her more closely against him and for a few moments the two of them stay there in companionable silence until a yawn from Rose attracts his attention.

“Are you tired?” he asks her, quietly.

She shakes her head at him, seemingly adamant that her very human need for sleep is the last thing that she will let steal her away from him, even only for a short while.

“No, ’m fine.”

“You sure?”

“Honestly, ’m fine.”

The even larger yawn that follows immediately after rather diminishes the effect of her statement.

“Hmm,” he says, repressed laughter evident in his tone, “I can’t say I’m convinced. Still, don’t mind me; if you want a bit of kip, go right ahead!”

He moves to get up, but her hand on his arm gives him pause.

“Don’t.”

And with that one word the whole mood changes. Clearly, he realises now, she is equally as hesitant as he to be apart from each other at the moment.

“Rose?”

“Please. Just this once? Don’t leave me.”

Her plaintive tone, so different to her usual bright and cheerful self, has him fully alert and moving so he can face her; he has forgotten, in his joy at being with her again, that she might be feeling as fragile as he as they get used to being together again after so long apart. His hand moves without conscious thought to cup her face and his voice, when he speaks next, is very gentle.

“All right, Rose. All right.”

He strokes her cheek with his thumb before leaning in to follow the path his thumb has made with his mouth. He drops tiny kisses on her skin as his lips slowly move over her face, until finally he reaches her mouth.

“I’ll not leave you. I _promise_.”

The words, whispered under his breath and, he thinks, too quietly for her to hear, seem to be something he needs to say – a way of putting in words a part of what she means to him. He mutters that he loves her in his own language, that he knows she won’t understand and the TARDIS won’t translate for her – he’s hiding, still, because a large part of him still doesn’t quite believe that this is really happening – before he kisses her on the mouth properly, tongues and everything, and almost without meaning to he finds himself losing himself in her again.

If it lies within his power, he promises himself, he’ll never let her go.


End file.
